John Bostic

Practice Areas

John is a former federal prosecutor and seasoned first-chair trial lawyer. He has significant experience handling high-stakes and high-profile civil and criminal matters. After practicing at a San Francisco litigation boutique firm, John spent more than eight years with the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California (NDCA), where he helped lead some of the office’s most challenging and sensitive cases – including the widely publicized prosecutions of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and chief operating officer Ramesh Balwani. As a prosecutor, John’s trial skills garnered praise from judges, journalists, opposing counsel and even defendants. At Cooley, his practice focuses on responding to government investigations and prosecutions, conducting internal investigations, litigating complex civil matters, and leading trial teams in matters before juries, judges and arbitrators.

John joined Cooley from the Corporate and Securities Fraud Unit of the US Attorney’s Office for the NDCA. During John’s tenure as an assistant US attorney (AUSA), he led teams investigating and prosecuting a wide variety of criminal violations – including securities fraud, bank fraud, insider trading, computer hacking, public corruption, international export violations, and organized crime/Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) offenses. John’s performance in these matters quickly earned him a reputation as a go-to prosecutor for noteworthy and hard-fought cases. He was co-lead counsel in the government’s case against Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh Balwani, where he helped manage all aspects of the investigation and played a leading role in the two three-month jury trials that culminated in the convictions of both defendants. The office similarly selected John to serve as co-first-chair trial counsel in a critically important domestic terrorism case resulting from a fatal attack by right-wing extremists at the Oakland federal courthouse in 2020. As an AUSA, John received the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award for Trial – the Department of Justice’s highest award presented to attorneys for excellence in specialized areas of legal performance.

Earlier in his career, John clerked for US District Judge Marilyn L. Huff of the US District Court for the Southern District of California before joining San Francisco law firm Keker, Van Nest & Peters, where he represented clients in complex commercial litigation and government investigations. John has experience managing all aspects of civil litigation in cases involving allegations of breach of contract, patent and copyright infringement, theft of trade secrets, consumer fraud, antitrust violations, professional malpractice, fraudulent conveyances and breach of fiduciary duty.

John earned his JD from Stanford Law School and his BA from Yale, where he majored in molecular, cellular and developmental biology. His comfort with complicated scientific and technical issues – along with his deep litigation and trial experience – make him well suited to handle his clients’ most significant legal challenges.